As a child she toured with her musical and comedy artist parents
- George Speed and Ada Worsley, moving to different schools -
almost every week. Her debut came to her at the age of three years
old, as she toddled on to stage in a nightdress to sing a
song about a golliwog. Two years later, she made her
acting debut as the velvet-suited infant Prince of Rome in a
Victorian melodrama, called The Royal Divorce. She then
appeared in repertory theatres and in numerous radio plays. She
left acting to work for, amongst others, the Guinness brewery in Manchester, as a clerk.
Returning to acting relatively late in life, she had a small role
in the 1960 Stanley
Baker vehicle Hell Is a City which was set in Manchester.

She also worked on a 1950s police television series Shadow
Squad. In 1960, close friend and writer of Shadow
SquadTony
Warren created the soap opera Coronation Street, purportedly
writing the character of Annie Walker specifically for her

She appeared in 1,746 episodes and was one of only a handful of
original cast members still appearing in the 1980s. Towards the end
of her run on Coronation Street, a national
newspaper published her birth certificate, which proved her to be
many years older than she had claimed. She publicly fainted when
she learned the news, while at work on Coronation Street. She was
advised to go home to rest and never returned. Weeks later,
burglars robbed her house while she was asleep.

The stress surrounding the incidents caused her to have a minor
breakdown, and she left the show to live the rest of her days in a
nursing home, although she made a guest appearance in the 30th
anniversary special programme, Happy Birthday Coronation
Street in 1990, where she was given a standing ovation. Her
final television appearance was an interview given with the actor
Kenneth Farrington (her on-screen son) in
1993. She died in 1994, at the age of 95.

She was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
on 29 November 1977, for her impact on British society in the role
of Annie.